Deaf Justice Coalition is a new organization in New YorkCity. If you asked the police for help and got no help?Or if you were arrested and police did not treat you well?These are what the Deaf Justice Coalition wants to know.It is a coalition of different deaf organizations inNew York City. They want to work with the police to helpimprove deaf-police relationships.

— a growing empire by a deaf business person

Many of us know that deaf Evelyn Glennie is one of the world’sbest known musicians (percussionist). Many of us do not realizeshe has a growing business empire. She had to buy a new buildingas headquarters for her business empire. Her empire includes:

The Cleveland Cavaliers agreed with Department of Justice toprovide captions at the Quicken Loans Arena. This agreementis strange. Gordon Lund, former majority owner, and nowthe minority owner, is blind. He founded Foundation FightingBlindness. Yet the Cavaliers would not provide captions untilrecently. Blind discriminating against the deaf?

— a deaf hypnotist who never went to school

George Wood, a deaf man from Scotland, is a hypnotist.His clients are hearing. He lipreads to communicate with them.He never went to school to learn hypnotism. He taught himselfhypnotism by researching the internet. He has been performinghypnotism at hearing social events for two years. It is hisfull time job.

— a patent for a magic hearing aid

Howard Samuels, a deaf man, has filed a patent for a “magic”hearing aid. Magic? Yes, today’s hearing aids have switches forpower, volume control, program selection, etc. He invented ahearing aid that operates by a motion sensor. It turns onthe hearing aid without touching it. Patent? US PatentsOffice is always slow with approval of patents. It may takea long time.

If a hearing person wants to test his genetics to see ifhe has deaf genes – or – if a deaf couple wants to see iftheir newborn child will be or will not be deaf, what isthe cost? A genetics testing company, called 23andMe, wouldcharge just $99.00

– a deaf agency shuts down a TTY line

How many of us really use the TTY? Yes, the old fashionedTTY machine? Well, the Division for Rehabilitative Services,Office for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services (DARS) inTexas, will be shutting down its TTY number on May 1, 2013.Why? Too few deaf people use it to contact DARS for anything!

– a deaf hairdresser that communicates with dogs and cats

Mandy Carr, a deaf British woman, is a hairdresser.Her second job is to communicate with dogs and catsand to tell the owners what they are feeling (happy orsad or angry or disappointed, etc). A joke? Well, shecharges about $130 for her services and she has served1,500 clients so far this year. The irony? She has nopets at home – because her family is allergic!

Justine Liss, a deaf woman, wants to become a barber,and to own her barber shop some day. She moved from New York to Pennsylvania because a New York barber school told her deaf cannot become a barber. She enrolled at the Carbondale Barber School, even though she had no money to pay for tuition. Mike Caporali, the school owner, allowed her to enroll, even thoughhe had no luck finding tuition money for her. He said she is doingvery well and will easily pass the state barbering exam.

— Hearing students use sign language to save their school

The Yaldhurst Model School in New Zealand is supposed to mergewith another school. The hearing students did not want to merge.They made several sign language videos and plan to post theseon the internet. Sign language? Yes, they learned sign languageto communicate with a deaf student that attends the school.

— a second chance at NFL for a deaf football player

Derrick Coleman, who is deaf, played football at UCLA as a running back and was signed by Minnesota Vikings in the pre-season. The team cut him in the summer time. Just recently, Seattle Seahawks signed Derrick to their practice roster. Will he be promoted to the active roster this season? Hard to say.

— an employer’s anti-deaf attitude

One employer said:– we are not a social service– we have no time to train the deaf how to do the job– we have no money to train the deaf– deaf people cannot work well– deaf people have communication problems– deaf people cannot keep up with new technology

This attitude is terrible. Where in USA did thatanti-deaf employer made these comments? Nope, not in USA, but in Australia! We are luckyto be Americans.

— the Forevermark diamond and the deaf

the Forevermark diamond is popular in China, Hong Kong, India and Japan. It is part of the famous De Beers diamond empire.Anyway, at the Forevermark factory in Botswana, there are 220employees, and about 45 of them are deaf. One of them isEdwin Mabote, a factory supervisor of hearing employees.These deaf employees work on the polishing of diamonds to make these look perfect. Unfortunately these Deaf Diamondsare not available in USA.

In 1966, Evelyn McDade gave birth and the baby was taken away from her for for adoption without her permission. Reason? The Australian government said she cannot raise children because of her deafness. She has been upset about it for a long time. Luckily, in 2004, her birth daughter found mother Evelyn. Since then they’ve been close. Last week Australian Premier Campbell Newman apologized to her for taking the baby away from her.

— Cochlear Cup in a deaf sporting event?

Two deaf teams play each other in a sport; the winner takes home the Cochlear Cup. This is not a joke. Cochlear Cup started in 2002, and this trophy goes to the winner of the Australia Deaf vs New Zealand Deaf match in rugby. Does Cochlear Cup have rules – only CI players could play? Non-CI allowed to play? And what if Deaflympics becomes Cochlearlympics? In the Deaflympics, the participants are not allowed to wear hearing aids or CI duringcompetition.

— Bieber sort of says “too bad, you are deaf”

A deafened Oregon woman filed a 9 million dollar lawsuit against rock star Justin Bieber, saying that his extremely loud concert caused her to go deaf. Justin is trying very hard to get the judge to dismiss the lawsuit as silly. This is the attitude Bieber is saying – too bad, you are deaf!

— Future hearing aids – no batteries!

Battery manufacturers are not going to like it but future hearing aids may not require batteries! Scientists from MIT have invented a special hearing aid where the power comes from the ear itself. It is not yet ready for the market. The scientists were also asked if future CI may not require batteries. They said they don’t know yet.

— Future job for the deaf – accessibility auditor

Jobs for the deaf come and go. But would there be a future for the deaf as Accessibility Auditor? Steven Mifsud, himself, deaf, owns a accessibility consulting business in United Kingdom. So far he has consulted 1,000 clients on their accessibility needs. Restaurants without cash register displays, no display captions in subways, handcuffing arrested deaf people behind their backs, kiosks for interpreters, etc. These are things that accessibility auditors look for.